A/N- How terribly naughty of me to be gone so long. Would it help if I apologized? I'm sorry, really I am. I got some lovely reviews and made it quite a bit higher than my goal of 100. Thank you one and all! I'll respond personally to those I can as soon as this is posted. And to all my anonymous reviewers who I can't respond to, THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS! I love your love.
Last chapter I asked for requests. Only got two requests which makes my job easier :-) A young Bill Weasly and a bottom Remus will be happening. Though side note to those who want to see bottom Remus, it will happen I promise but not for the first time. Only after Remus tops. Sorry!
Down to business. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Sheesh. it's been so long since I posted I almost forgot how to do this. Don't own, don't sue.
Warnings: Nothing! Pretty tame. I'm resting up for the next chapter when I'll stretch my smut muscle. haha.
Now all the days of begging, the days of theft. No more gasping for a breath. The air has filled me head to toe an dI can see the ground far below. I have this breath and I hold it tight and I keep it in my chest with all my might. -Between Two Lungs- Florence +The Machine.
Chapter 10: A violated chicken and a breath shared.
It was with a certain amount of trepidation that Remus made his way downstairs. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been around a child and was worried something awful would happen. Nothing he'd heard so far of the unpredictable Harry had quelled his fears and Remus nibbled his bottom lip nervously. Sirius who was watching Remus carefully noted the young mans sudden tension. He was directly to Remus's side walking down the stairs at an angle and holding both his arms out as inconspicuously as possible, ready to catch Remus should he fall forward OR backwards.
Being treated like any moment might be his last was not doing much for Remus's sense of calm and he felt particularly snappy with Sirius.
"For God's sake I'm not going to fall on my face Sirius!"
Sirius reluctantly lowered the hand he held in front of Remus.
"Or my arse."
"I'm not protecting you, just like having my hand here, that's all.' Sirius waggled his eyebrows ridiculously and Remus couldn't help but smile at the childish flirting.
"Siiiirius!" A very small dark haired boy with overlarge glasses and curry all over his face tumbled up the stairs into Sirius's waiting arms with Padfoot huffing at his heels. Remus thought it was the first time he'd ever seen anyone fall up stairs before.
"Hawwweee!' Sirius squealed in response, a childish lisp in his voice and tossed the giggling little boy into the air several times catching him and laughing. "Hawwee wanna fwy?"
"Yes! Fly!"
Sirius held the child up above his head and, making some highly impressive engine sounds, ran down the stairs and disappeared into the kitchen, Padfoot barking joyously behind, leaping and snapping at the boy suspended out of reach.
Lily, who had been quietly following down the stairs came to stand by Remus who, though he'd never admit it, felt quite lost without Sirius's hand on his arse.
"Sirius was highly disappointed when my son started to speak properly. He keeps trying to lure him back to lisping, the meddlesome bastard." She said without anger and a terribly fond smile on her face.
Remus smiled tentatively and wished he'd agreed to stay upstairs in bed.
"Well, once more unto the breach dear friend, once more." Lily winked and offered Remus her arm in such away that he felt like a gentlemen as opposed to an invalid and for that he was grateful.
Carefully they made their way down the stairs and with a fortifying breath and a reassuring arm squeeze from Lily they pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen.
"Lily love, Remus old chap! It's been ages." James called from across the kitchen. He was standing by the sink with his hands hidden behind he back. Sirius was lounging casually against the table holding a squirming and giggling Harry upside down by his ankle. Padfoot was sitting by his master's feet licking the boys face clean.
Remus eyed the long lean body. Christ almighty, even torturing children the man looked good.
Sirius noting Remus's appreciative eye grinned in pleasure and winked when Remus's gaze made it up to his face. Remus blushed.
"Hawee, this is my vewy good fwiend Wemus. Say Hello."
"Hello Wemus."
"It's err, Remus actually Harry. And it's nice to meet you at last."
"Wemus. That's what I said, isn't it?" Sirius said setting Harry on his feet gently.
"Hello Wemus." Harry repeated waving.
"Re… Oh nevermind. Hello Harry." Remus said and, after a moment, waved back.
Harry giggled. "Are you Sirius's friend Wemus?"
"Yes, yes I am." Remus said nervously, determinedly not looking at the smiling Sirius.
"Are you Sirius's very special friend Wemus?"
" Err… I don't think I know what you mean Harry" He thought he knew exactly what he meant actually. Damn Potters and their loaded questions.
"Are you going to live here with Sirius Wemus? Is he Sirius?" Harry repeated turning to Sirius. Sirius looked cautiously over at Remus.
"Is Wemus going to live here with me?" Sirius said softly.
"Well… Yes Harry. I'm going to live here with Sirius for awhile." Remus said looking at Sirius whose face broke out into a splitting grin.
Harry however, frowned. "Does this mean that Wemus gets my room and when we visit Uncle Sirius I have to sleep with Mommy and Daddy?"
"I don't think that will be necessary Harry." Remus said and the joy that filled Sirius's eyes at his words confirmed it.
"So you are Sirius's very special friend then Wemus."
"I suppose I am, Harry, I suppose I am."
"Well, that's settled then." James, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, said.
"How about you lot move this into the dining room. Mrs. Weasly set out some lovely takeaway and I'd hate to see it get cold. I'll just finish up in here and join you."
"Takeaway?" Lily said suspiciously. " I though Molly said she had a chicken she was going to stuff and cook."
"Did she? I don't remember her saying that." James said innocently his hand pulling tighter behind his back.
"James… What are you hiding?"
"Hiding? Me? I'm not hiding anything love. The foods really getting cold. Nothing worse than cold noodles."
"James show me your hands."
James held his left hand out in front of him. "See? Now on to other things. Remus? Sirius's very special friend eh? Harry seems to have grasped on to the meaning but I'm still a bit in the dark…"
"Your other hand James."
James returned his left hand behind his back then moved it front again.
"That's the same hand James."
"Is it?" James countered. "Is it really?"
Lily looked steamed while Sirius and Harry looked positively gleeful. Remus reckoned they must know what was in James right hand and from the matching evil smiles it wasn't good.
"James Harold Potter if you don't put your right hand out this instant I swear to God!"
"Whoa there slow down. I said I wasn't hiding anything didn't I? I clearly showed you two hands. Is there no sanctity of marriage? Have you no shame? Are you saying you don't trust me? Me Lily? Me?" James bellowed pounding his chest with both hands. "Well? Are you going to answer me? Lily? Lils?"
Remus couldn't tear his eyes away so he wasn't sure if the continued silence meant Lily had the same shocked expression on her face that he had on his but considering that James's right hand was apparently stuck inside the missing chicken he doubted she could look any other way.
"Lils? Love? Ah…" James said glancing down at his chicken body hand. "Oh THIS hand! Oh well, sure but why would I hide this?" James continued shrugging and holding his hand and chicken up in the air.
Lily slowly regained her power of speech. "How… how did you…How did you get your hand stuck in that chicken?"
James crossed his arms thoughtfully, the cold uncooked chicken body leaving a sticky smear across his chest. "Sometimes it helps to turn a question around Lily, maybe you should ask yourself, 'how could I not get my hand stuck in this chicken? Hmm?"
Sirius nodded sagely. "Hear hear." He said.
And Harry just started to laugh.
Shaking her head slowly as if clearing cobwebs from her face Lily mutely gathered the chuckling Harry into her arms and walked out of the kitchen with what wits she had left.
"Need a … hand, Ronaldo?" Remus offered.
"How kind of you Remus, thank you. My fingers are getting a bit pruny." He wrinkled his brow and ran a non-chicken encased hand through his hair.
Remus picked up a knife and reached for James's chicken. "Let's see the cock then Ronaldo."
"Whoa there. I know it's hard to believe but there's a very important hand in this chicken. I've made it through many years against ALL odds without losing a body part and I'm not going to throw that sort of record away now."
"Relax James, I know what I'm doing. I'm rather good with a knife." He added casually. He doubted Sirius and James were comfortable enough with him to hear exactly how skilled he had been forced to become with a knife.
Remus quickly worked, slicing expertly at the chicken until James soggy, wrinkled white hand was released with an extraordinarily un-sexy pop.
"There you are. Hand nicely marinated."
James gave Remus and appraising look. " And in record time too. I'd say 'rather good with a knife' is something of an understatement. How long have you known how to handle a blade like that?"
Remus assimilated his features in a carefully blank look. "Oh, I don't know. I'm a quick study."
James obviously wanted to push the matter and looked over Remus's shoulder at Sirius who had been watching silently.
"Don't you think Remus handles a blade well Sirius?"
Remus nervously turned to look at Sirius who, to his surprise was not looking calculating at all but was still grinning foolishly.
"He handled my blade well."
James groaned and shook his head. "Please Sirius. I've already had my hand stuck up a chicken's tight wet arse for the past 40 minutes. Don't you think I've dealt with enough unpleasant images to last, if not the rest of my life, then the rest of the day?"
Sirius pretended to give it serious (ahem) thought before shaking his head in disagreement. "I wish my hand was stuck up a tight wet arse for 40 minut…"
James groaned again. Louder this time thank goodness so Remus's surprised whimper of lust went unnoticed. Sirius meanwhile resumed his face splitting grin.
"Sirius! Please…is it really too much of me to ask… why do you keep grinning? For God's sakes man this isn't a Village Idiot impersonation contest. And if it was you'd have won years ago so give it up already. Why are you still smiling?"
"Remus is my very special friend." Sirius said, without dropping his smile for a moment.
Remus felt himself blush and an unfamiliar tingle sparked up in his chest, toes, lower belly and, oddly enough, left earlobe.
"Yes well, bully for you old man." James said walking towards Sirius. "I'm happy for you both, I really am." He clapped his right hand on Sirius back several times in a congratulatory manner. "So very happy."
"Thanks James, that's sweet of you to say. You're the best friend I could have ever asked for you know that?" Sirius replied ecstatically grinning adoringly at Remus as the three men walked toward the dining room.
It really goes to show just how distracted Remus was by his tingling earlobe that he didn't even notice the multiple chicken juice handprint stains on Sirius's back.
Sirius thought the food tasted delicious. "My God these are the best cold noodles I've ever had!"
Sirius thought the wine was particularly fine that evening. "Well than it was a damn good year for boxes, allright?"
Sirius thought the table conversation extraordinarily hilarious. "Well of course I don't find Old Rudolphs's death funny. It's just the way you said it is all…"
Actually if Sirius's brain would stop spinning and leaping and practicing all sorts of acrobatic nonsense, Sirius would realize that everything seemed a good deal better than usual.
The art on the walls more beautiful. An increasingly unpleasant smelling James more wonderful. The stubbornly ignoring her husband Lily more glorious. The curious Harry sticking a noodle up his nose more charming. How lucky I am. Sirius thought joyously.
And Remus. Remus! Sirius couldn't even think the name silently in his head without grinning. He was literally vibrating with happiness. "Sirius stop shaking the entire table!"
He watched Remus nibble on a noodle and listen politely to Lily's explanation of ptomaine poisoning apparently giving her his undivided attention while he thumb wrestled with Harry under the table.
Remus looked gorgeous and perfectly in place at the same time. The only upside of their forced speedy exit from Remus's former "home" was that he had been forced to wear Sirius's clothes until they could get to the shops. Sirius decided to postpone that trip for as long as possible.
An old dark blue cotton t-shirt looked warm and soft against Remus's golden skin and Sirius decided the shirt was now his favorite. Seeing the handsome man in Sirius's sweat pants and knowing that he wasn't wearing underwear under the baggy sweats, did something funny to his tummy. Mmmm, Sirius hummed deep in his throat the beginning tendrils of lust creeping down towards his groin.
Remus was perfect and he was here, for whatever reason, to stay. Really! He'd even said so, in front of witnesses no less! The man he loved had agreed to stay in his world and his world was a better place for it. "James your hair looks fabulous today. New cut? Color? Brush?" Sirius wasn't at all surprised that the cold noodles tasted just as delicious when flung at one's face, with Remus there he doubted anything could be bad again.
It was late when James, Lily and Harry headed home. The conversation had been interesting and fun, everyone had laughed a lot, and Remus was surprised and pleased at how well he got along with Lily.
James and Sirius were like exotic animals, beautiful, dangerous, strange and quite easy to become obsessed with, but with the pragmatic Lily Remus felt a kinship he hadn't been expecting. Yet one more thing to hurt me when this goes bad. He couldn't help but think. Yet the end comes when it comes and there's nothing we can do about it. So Remus was determined to throw up his hands and enjoy the best while he could. Having friends, being warm, clothed, safe and well fed, and most of all near Sirius. Living here and loving Sirius secretly would without a doubt kill him when Sirius moved on to new entertainment but by God, wasn't that all the more reason to cherish every moment while he could?
And so he'd relaxed and talked and laughed and made friends with little Harry while keeping one eye, sometimes two, (well alright, mostly two) on the radiant Sirius Black.
The conversation while lively was also 'safe' for which Remus was immensely grateful. No one mentioned Gray or Remus's life at all, not that he thought they would in front of Harry. No one asked him about his past and childhood either, yet another whopper of a topic avoided for now, Remus didn't think he could handle such questions tonight and was touched by their understanding.
He was more than a little sad when Lily said they had to be getting Harry home. Partly because he'd never had more fun or felt more comfortable with people in his life, and partly because he was nervous as hell as to what would happen after they were gone. Sirius and Remus walked them to the door.
"Careful getting home, it's late. Are you sure you don't want to spend the night?
"We'll be fine. I'll be back to check on you in two days." Lily said to Remus and pulled him into a fierce hug.
"Oh please don't trouble, I feel perfectly fine already." Remus said. He did feel fine. His body was quite used to damage and had built up a fast recovery time.
"It's no trouble at all, though I'm glad to hear your feeling better."
"Yeah mate, don't worry about it, we practically live here anyway. If it wasn't one thing, it'd be another. Even so, no more scares like that you hear?" James slapped him on the back gently,
"Wemus?"
"Yes Harry?"
"Because you're Sirius's special friend does that mean you can't be my special friend too?"
Remus's mouth twitched and he knelt down to Harry's level. "Well, you're a very special boy and I'd like very much to be your friend… what do you think?"
Harry grinned and hugged Remus. "Then we are special friends."
Remus hugged Harry back and felt an itching in the back of his throat. Children, such innocence, such goodwill and easy genuine love. Remus had never known anything like it before and he wildly hoped Harry would never lose his good and generous heart, no matter what happened.
With one more round of goodbyes, the Potter's left and the heavy thump of the closing front door cast Remus and Sirius into silence.
"So…" Sirius said clearing his throat. "Do you… ah…long day. Did you… aah."
Speaking of innocence… Remus felt that ever present tingling kick into high gear again at Sirius's stutterings and rising blush. Absently he touched his earlobe, certain he'd feel the flesh vibrating.
Remus wasn't accustomed to wanting a customer and wasn't sure what to do about it. He was however excellent at his job and wanted to give Sirius everything he had to give in return for the happiness he'd received. Besides, Sirius had stopped being a 'customer' a long time ago whether Remus would admit it or not.
"Let's go to bed Sirius."
A cacophony of emotions danced across Sirius's face. Surprise, lust, embarrassment, worry, and lust made a second appearance before settling into a thoughtful look. "Remus, we never really finished talking about this, but I want you to know that you aren't forced to do anything here. I only want you to be safe and happy, and while anything that passes between us beyond that is… by no means unwelcome, if you don't really and truly want to, you must understand you don't owe me anything."
"Take me to bed Sirius."
Sirius still looked worried at Remus's succinct response. "You've had a really long and Christ, traumatic day. You're fragile, emotionally, physically, you should be resting, you can think about this later…"
With a raised eyebrow Remus sauntered forward and ran his hands gently up Sirius's body. Starting at his upper thighs, crossing hip bones, nipples, and shoulders to rest lovingly on his face. Remus leaned forward until he was close enough that every ragged breath released from Sirius's mouth slipped between his own trembling parted lips.
"Take me to bed Sirius."
Sirius surged forward catching Remus's mouth with his. It was passionate and messy. Too hot and too wet but with Remus's hands clutching possessively at Sirius's arse, and Sirius's hands gripping and pulling at Remus's hair neither felt the need to complain.
Smut next chapter, quite obviously. Shouldn't take too long to get up. (wink wink, nudge nudge) Tomorrow hopefully. :-) Please Review! It brightens my life.